Wear Tech for a safer world

Deepak Arora’s life was forever changed in the summer of 2020 when he lost his daughter. The toddler became one of the estimated 236,000 accidental drownings worldwide that occur annually.

“My background has been all in computers and electronics engineering. I just could not bear the fact that this couldn’t have been avoided,” Arora said. “And that’s where my head started spinning. After a couple of months, I came up with the thought that with the advancements in science, technology, and AI, we can definitely avoid accidents like this. I thought there might be something already out there, and we were just not aware of it.”

Arora searched for some technology that could have prevented the heartbreaking loss of his daughter. To his surprise, there was nothing on the market that would have saved the child’s life.

He decided to change that.

Inspired by the desire to prevent accidental deaths, Arora started to design what would become a wearable safety device that would “protect lives by detecting and even predicting life-threatening situations, then promptly alert others who can help.”

His designs eventually became the basis of Wear Tech, a Hartland-based company that is working on a device and technology that will track a person’s heart rate, oxygen levels, ambient temperature, GPS location as well as proximity to hazards, like bodies of water and train tracks.

The product uses GPS technology to warn of dangerous situations. Users can establish a geofence — a safe zone where the wearer is expected to remain. If the person wearing the device leaves the defined area, an alert will be issued, and the device will raise the alert level to the next stage, where the predictive capabilities of our technology start to monitor for the hazards nearby.

“The hazard prediction algorithm is an example of how we’re taking it to the next level with our device,” he said. “It can also monitor which direction you’re moving, and then based on any hazards around you; it can notify the parents that your child, or your aging family member with dementia, has gone out of the range and she is about to get into a hazard. The innovative technology is also smart enough to know what type of fall the wearer has occurred and whether the fall is in a water body or a hard surface.”

The company has a number of patents pending based on the algorithms that deal with the predictive functions of the product. Arora believes these features, coupled with the reporting accuracy that exceeds anything on the market today, will be the key differentiators for Wear Tech when the product is released.

The product is currently in beta development and the company anticipates it will release the product sometime in 2023. Wear Tech is focused on keeping the production as local as possible. The company is currently looking at a number of Midwestern manufacturers to create the wearable devices.

The technical details of the project are very future forward, but Wear Tech’s approach to the launch of the business is a familiar one. Arora and his team just completed the Milwaukee I-Corps Program and are in the midst of a fundraising round. Additionally, the company has just been named a finalist in the Wisconsin Innovation Awards.

Arora initially imagined Wear Tech as a direct-to-consumer product, but has since discovered that nursing homes, daycare centers, and other care-centered businesses are interested in the product. He is currently working on a plan to create successful avenues for both B2C and B2B markets.

While the development of Wear Tech is successfully moving in the right direction, Arora never loses sight of why he started this endeavor. He wants to save other families from the pain that has scarred his own. According to Arora, 5.6 million kids worldwide do not make it to age five. The statistic haunts him, and he repeats it often, hoping to alert others of the dangers that are part of everyday life.

 Arora believes Wear Tech will decrease that shocking number, while making the world a safer place for everyone. It is easy to hope that he is right.

To follow the progress of this emerging company, connect with them here.